LIBERI FATALIS: The Therianthrope Chronicles

by Eddie-E

A crossover between Ace Combat, Katmandu and another, surprise famous furry comic. A Japanese scientist during the onset of World War II in Europe devises a groundbreaking theory of evolution whose effects will resonate not only on Earth but also throughout the universe for centuries to come. Rated M for language and mature situations.

14. CHISHATA (PART 2)

ACT XIV: CHISHATA (PART 2)

---

There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people.

Howard Zinn

---

SD 195-11-11, DH270, near Chishata Mining Colony No. 2, 1119 hours

More than 24 hours passed since the events between the DH270 commanded by Itzak Arrat and the ILR fleet that had attacked the mining colony of Chishata, in which the aforementioned fleet tried to escape from the solar system by means of an emergency jump to friendly space. But, in a combination of several events, among which could be mentioned the damage that both enemy ships suffered previously during a previous combat, the gravitational well of the Chishata system, among other causes, caused a nuclear explosion that apparently destroyed the ILR fleet, along with the crews of both ships.

After these events, both the Net and Helmut, the second in command of the DH270, had been in charge of organizing a summary of the events up to the previous day for Arrat, who at that time had just arrived at the bridge after that terrible day and requiring a deserved rest. Considering all that had also happened in the ship, where many crew members died as a result of the battle between the DH270 with the ACVs from the ILR fleet, Arrat wanted to know everything that had happened up to that point and also what they were going to do, now that they no longer had to worry about the ILR, and now their top priority was to enter the colony and know what had happened within it, especially after they realized that one of the space stations was destroyed after the enemy fleet escaped from the site.

-"Good morning, Helmut."-

-"Good morning, captain."- Helmut replied, while checking some data in his data pad. -"I hope at least you've had a refreshing sleep."-

After what happened in the last ten days, Itzak could not say that he had a pleasant dream at all, especially when many people died and he still had feelings of guilt because he perceived that all those who died up to that point were due to errors of judgment that caused damage to the ship and casualties.

And because of that, he didn't feel like replying him.

-"..."-

Helmut and the rest of the crew on the bridge interpreted the silence of their captain and the reasons for not saying anything else, and he decided to get to the point with the summary.

-"Ehem..."- The Feline man began the summary. -"Leaving aside what we already know up to this point, the only thing we are completely sure of is that everything indicates that the enemy fleet was completely destroyed when trying to escape from Chishata by means of an emergency jump, in spite of the damage that both ships suffered in their external structures as a result of the attack carried out by our ACVs. Considering the size and magnitude of the explosion, it goes without saying that we have not found survivors in the little we have been able to find from what remained of the fleet."-

-"That's it?"- Replied Itzak at Helmut with an annoyed expression in his already demure face. -"Haven't you been able to find anything else, like bodies, relevant hardware or anything useful that might have been inside those ships?"-

-"It is very difficult to find anything after such an explosion, and anything organic that has been there could have disappeared on the spot."- Helmut continued with the summary. -"On the other hand, I have good news: We have been able to find some of the booty the ships might be hauling after looting the colony."

-"Really, Helmut?"-

-"Yes, and we've actually been able to identify its contents."-

-"Could you tell me what you could find from the loot on those ships?"-

-"OK, let me check:"- The man then gave a list of the spoils they found on the remainings of the destroyed ILR fleet. -"We have been able to find considerable quantities of tungsten, iridium, gold, silver, copper, among other precious and rare minerals. The list is too long to mention here all at once, so you will receive the full summary with all the relevant data for you to read in a more relaxed and timely manner. It should be noted that it is very likely that there could be more items not listed here, but the most likely is that they have disintegrated during the explosion, so this is the only things we have found so far. And let's just hope they weren't transporting prisoners inside one of those ships."-

Itzak read on his computer screen a quick list of items found in the wreckage of the enemy fleet still floating in space. After reading it, the Equine turned off the monitor and he decided on the next course of action.

-"Well, we can no longer do anything for them, but at least we can do something for the inhabitants of the colony, assuming they are okay."-

-"So you're going to order a search and rescue operation, captain?"-

-"That's right."- The captain replied, this time very determined in some way that the sacrifice of his men during the combat against the invading fleet of the ILR was not in vain, and he was not going to allow himself such a slip again into that colony. -"The operation will begin tomorrow morning. We must make sure that the ILR or whoever is behind all of this has not taken hostages and has not set some kind of trap that could destroy another station or even the entire colony. We must rescue as many hostages as possible and, if possible, bring them back home. Considering that we don't have to worry about enemy reinforcements coming, I don't think there would be any other important issue, except for any nuclear trap those bastards would have set at any of the stations within the colony. "

-"Then I'll organize the groundwork for the operation, sir."-

-"Very well."- The Equine captain replied at his XO. -"I leave all the important details in your hands, Helmut."-

---

SD 195-11-12, Transport ship bound for Chishata Mining Colony N0. 2, 0910 hours

Itzak Arrat ordered a search and rescue operation to find any survivors who might still be within the colony, starting with the mining colony No. 2. Due to the size of the space station, which was relatively small compared to the rest of the stations that formed part of the colony, a small group of officers specialized in space rescue operations were organized, who already had experience in this field during combat operations.

The team was made up of ten members, and led by Sgt. Gillerand, an Canine (coyote) who is an old schoolmate of Captain Arrat during their academy days. Along with him were two other officers with whom Hooti engaged in conversation as they made their way in a small transport ship to the space station. They discussed what they could await inside that place, considering what had happened to the first colony days ago, and the ILR's propensity to set traps when escaping in order to cause more casualties among their enemies.

Meanwhile, in space, a robot floated near the station in order to search for anything unusual near the space station's port of embarkation, in order to look for any trap that might destroy the search and rescue team's ship.

-"RR-1, have you been able to find anything so far?"-

-"No, sir, As far as my sensors have been able to detect, no dangerous objects have been located that could jeopardize the ship. Would you like me to do another search?"-

-"I don't think that will be necessary; thank you anyway."-

-"You're welcome, sargeant."-

A female voice was suddenly heard, interrupting the robot after it finished its radio conversation.

-"With all due respect, sir, don't you think we're being maybe too cautious for something as simple as docking with the station?"-

This question came from Lieutenant Jones, a Feline (cat) who was part of the team and this would be her first time participating in such a mission since she graduated from the academy.

-"That's a good question. Considering that we don't know exactly if they were really members of the ILR or some other kind of enemy group, we must be absolutely sure that we won't find any ugly surprises when we dock with the station."-

-"As far as we know, all this could have been the work of the ILR, but if you guys ask me, there is a possibility that they could have been space pirates or terrorists."-

That other opinion about the incident came from the mouth, or rather from the beak, of Lieutenant Hooti, an Avian (penguin) who was also a recent graduate of the academy, who also wanted to do his bit in the discussion.

-"I would like to share your opinion on the issue, but I find it very difficult, to be honest."- Jones replied. -"Even though we know the ILR, I doubt that even they would stoop to such a level, especially if it is only a matter of stealing a very distant space colony. Besides, what would they gain by doing that? I don't think those rabbits are desperate enough to engage in piracy, I think."-

-"I think so too, Lieutenant."- Gillerand replied at the girl. -"But I would not rule out the ILR either, since we know what they have been able to do, including using high-powered explosives or even weapons of mass destruction in order to hide their traces, whereas they have done similar things in the Great Lepine War."-

-"Well, you're right about that, sergeant."- The penguin agreed with his senior officer. -"In fact, have you heard the legend of the executioner of Baka?"-

Upon hearing that name, Gillerand was silent for a few moments, due to the nefarious reputation of the person mentioned by Hooti, and for a very good reason...

-"Do you mean Colonel Amenenha?"-

-"Ehh... I guess so, as far as I remember."- Hooti stuttered a bit after seeing Gillerand's face when the Canine heard that name. -"My father told me about him, since he participated in the war. It is said that he was called by that nickname, since he locked several soldiers and some civilians inside a building, and after that, he had it burned down with all its occupants in there. That was in the city of Baka in Arras Chanka, hence the name."-

Jones covered her mouth in disgust at hearing the atrocities of that infamous man, who, without anyone knowing at the time, had been with his men inside the colony.

-"That's was... horrible."- The Feline girl replied without trying to hide her revulsion after hearing such past event from the first war, -"How can someone like him ever exist in the ILR?"-

-"That's something we'd also like to know."- Gillerand explained the details of the event, without taking his eyes off the ship's controls. -"I can only imagine that someone like him is very useful to the ILR, as long as he does his job well. After all, as I understand from military intelligence reports, he is considered a national hero for his services during the war."-

-"Does that mean he's still alive?"- Jones asked.

-"Everything seems to suggest so."- The Canine officer replied with some somber look in his face. -"In fact, both the ConFed and Enchawah are offering a very high reward for his whereabouts, whether dead or alive."-

-"And how much are they offering for his head, sir?"- Hooti asked his officer regarding Amenenha. -"I take it that must be a very large amount, in light of his crimes."-

-"The last time I checked, they're offering approximately 100 million credits for his head."

The penguin gulped down when he heard such a sum of money offered for the whereabouts of that nefarious colonel.

-"WH-WHAT?! 100 MILLION?!"-

-"Yeah."- Gillerand replied at the Avian. -"And I think Enchawah offers an even bigger reward for him, but not exactly how much, but considering the amounts of money that corporation handles, I don't doubt it's even bigger than 100 million. After all, he also caused great damage and loss of people to the company during the war, and I don't doubt that they want him behind bars or dead."

-"Khai!"- Jones was deeply surprised about hearing how notorious was that Lepine man for both the ConFed and even Enchawah Corporation, the biggest industrial corporation in known space. -"That means that man is very dangerous. I wouldn't want to have to face him someday."-

-"Neither do I, Jones."- The sargeant sighed a bit. -"And let's just hope all this wasn't the work of that psycho, although to be honest, I doubt very much that someone like him could have been here. What would a supposed national hero gain by being in an operation that basically involves plundering an entire space mining colony? Any low-ranking officer can do this kind of stuff, and I don't think anyone of his status would be willing to get his hands dirty on something as simple as this."-

The conversation is interrupted by the artificial voice of the Net, who wanted to warn the crew of the ship about what was bound to happen.

-"Sorry to interrupt your conversation, sergeant, but the RR-1 has not detected any abnormality or sabotage attempt at the space station's docking port. The ship can dock safely on your command."-

-"Thanks for the heads-up."- The Canine officer thanked the AI, and then, he addressed to his men with a very loud voice. -"All right, ladies and gentlemen, it's time to get into the station! Let's just hope we don't find anything nasty in there."-

-"YES, SIR!"-

---

SD 195-11-12, Chishata Mining Colony No. 2 (docking port), 1130 hours

After several hours of travel, the DH270's search-and-rescue team mini-ship approached the station's docking port with great care, in order to avoid activating any traps that the robot could not have detected.

Seeing that there was no danger, the crew left the vehicle wearing space suits, since the ship they were on did not have the means to dock with the station, so they had to access the site manually via space walk.

Once the search and rescue team was near the docking port, Gillerand, the team leader, personally verified that there was no hidden trap that the robot had not previously detected. Along with them, another smaller robot, codenamed RR-2, accompanied the team in order to assist them in the search for any dangerous elements that might be inside the station. The RR-2 also searched inside the port for explosives, but fortunately nothing was found that could be a danger to the team.

-"Well, looks like there's not much to worry about here."-

Seeing that there was no obvious danger around the place, Gillerand and his men proceeded to the door leading into the station. They quickly noticed that the door opened quickly using the ordinary master access codes without any problem, which meant that the intruders did not have much time to make any modifications to prevent access to strangers.

---

SD 195-11-12, Chishata Mining Colony No. 2 (corridor), 1149 hours

-"HELLO? IS ANYBODY HOME HERE?"-

The first thing the team noticed upon entering the space station was that there was absolutely no one inside, not even cleaning robots or any other sign of life. This meant two things: Either the invaders locked their inhabitants somewhere while they stole the station, or the inhabitants were taken prisoner by the attackers, a possibility that horrified the EDF members, knowing beforehand the final fate of the enemy fleet.

-"Let us only hope that the inhabitants of the colony have not been inside those ships, that would be a horrible way to die."- Gillerand then addressed the robot. -"RR-2, what is the environmental temperature of the place?"-

-"Approximately 8 degrees centigrade. There is also enough air to breathe, in case you ask that."-

-"Thank you."-

The rest of the team was equally surprised by how quiet the place was. Due in part to the space vacuum, the fact that the invaders had turned off the lights inside the colony, and the lack of any kind of life sign, even if artificial, the inside of that space station was a place that caused claustrophobia for anyone who had no experience navigating through those dark and silent corridors, as was the case of Hooti and Jones, who, along with some members of the team, this was their first time working in such a place.

-"I never imagined that the interior of a space station could be so silent when everything is shut down and empty."- Jones said aloud while pointing the lights towards the walls of the station.

-"Yeah, just being here is starting to freak me out."- Hooti replied at his Feline partner. -"I just hope there's someone alive in this place."-

-"Quiet, gentlemen!"-

The subdued but remarkable voice of Gillerand, the team leader, was quickly noticed...

-"Sorry, sir."- Jones apologized at her senior.

-"We don't know if there could still be any aggressors inside the station, so be quiet."-

Meanwhile, the RR-2, the quadruped robot that accompanied the search and rescue team, used its light to illuminate the corridors of the station, which remained without any type of light in its interior. In this way, the team continued to search the entire section for an hour, finding no trace of life.

-"So far we haven't found anything in this hallway."- Gillerand expressed some obvious frustration in his face, having found nothing until then. -"Maybe if we go to the command center of the station we can find something, and if we are lucky, we can know what happened to the inhabitants of the station if we connect with its computers."-

-"And why didn't we go there in the first place, sergeant?"-

-"First I wanted to be absolutely sure that we'd find something around here, but everything seems like we're not going to find something in this area. Besides, this place is huge and we need to know how to get there first without getting lost in the process."- Then, the Canine officer addressed the robot. -"RR-2, can you download the maps for this station?"-

After a brief pause in what the robot was communicating with the Net, the machine responded to its organic superior.

-"The station maps have been downloaded as requested, sergeant. They will be sent to your data pad for reading."-

The station maps appeared on the sergeant's data pad, which helped a lot to know the exact location of the space station's command center.

-"Thank you, RR-2"-

-"You are welcome, sir."-

-"All right, we know where the command center is, so let's go over there and find out what went down with the rest of the crew at this station. Let's move!"-

-"YES, SIR!"-

And without further ado, Gillerand's team headed north in order to locate the command center.

---

SD 195-11-12, Chishata Mining Colony No. 2 (command center), 1249 hours

The search and rescue team led by Gillerand managed to reach the command center without any hiccups. When they arrived at the door that led to the interior of the place, the members of the mentioned team noticed that the door seemed to be half open, as if someone tried to open it by force; this made things much easier, because they would not have to do it on their own.

-"At least we have to thank the rabbits for leaving the door open for us, and not having to open it with explosives or some other means."- Gillerand then ordered the robot again. -"RR-2, make sure there are no traps in the door."-

-"Yes, sir."-

After checking the door for a few minutes, the robot found nothing that put the team at risk, something that made the sergeant aware of.

-"There are no dangerous or explosive objects in the door. You can enter the place without problems, sir."-

-"Thanks, RR-2"-

Without further ado, the entire team entered the command center. Upon entering the site, everyone noticed the same thing they saw in the station corridors: The absence of any trace of life, not one single light on could be seen there, and all the computers, even the most essential ones, were turned off, which meant that only the vital emergency systems were the only ones activated, otherwise there would be no air in the station to begin with.

Besides that, the place was a complete mess: The chairs, tables and other furniture that were inside the center were lying on the floor, and it was evident that there was some kind of struggle in that place. Also, one could see in some parts of the place that there were bullet impacts, which means that someone opened fire in there.

-"Well, everything feels like things went ugly around here."-

-"It all seems so, sir."- Jones replied at Gillerand. -"But it is weird that there is not a single drop of blood around here."-

-"They probably took the staff who worked here somewhere else. "- Hooti replied while picking up a bunch of disks lying in the floor.

-"What would be nice to know is, where did they take them?"- Jones also replied, trying in a futile attempt on turning on the computers. -"Khai, I just hope we haven't been too late..."-

Suddenly, RR-2 interrupted the talk to give an urgent message to Gillerand...

-"Sorry for the interruption, but the captain wishes to speak with you, sergeant."-

-"Patch him through, please."-

-"Do you want me to use my speakers, or do you want me to send the signal to your communicator, sir?"-

-"To my communicator, if you please."-

-"Understood."-

The voice of Itzak Arrat, the captain of the DH270, was heard on the sergeant's communicator worn inside his space suit helmet.

-"First of all, I apologize for not having contacted you before when you entered the station, but I was busy with other things."- The Equine captain said with a worried tone in his voice. -"How are things going there?"

-"So far we haven't found anything here. Since we arrived at the station, we have not found any sign of life, not even robots, and all the lights are off, so we have to use our own lighting."- Gillerand replied at his senior. -"At the moment we are in the command center of the station, but we have not found anything else either, except that the invaders razed the place and took its occupants to some unknown place. In addition, we have found what appears to be signs of bullet impacts, although we have not seen blood anywhere, which means that there must have been some kind of quarrel here before taking over the site."-

-"That's strange. Proceed to search throughout..."-

As Itzak and Gillerand conversed, a red light appeared out of nowhere, as if pointing at someone, which meant only one thing, something the RR-2 immediately made known with a loud and unusual voice for a robot...

-"JONES, LOOK OUT!"-

-"WHA-!"-

A loud sound, which seemed to be that of a high-powered firearm shot, was heard throughout the command center, and before the rest of the search and rescue team could react in time, the next thing they saw after hearing the shot was how Lieutenant Jones' helmet exploded into pieces, while a major amount of blood floated due to lack of gravity, while the girl only floated face up, unconscious. The rest of the team, horrified by what had happened, could only cry out in terror at that tragic scene...

-"JONES!"-

Hooti, who was on the back of her wounded companion, quickly stopped everything he was doing so far, and went to take care of her, while she did not stop bleeding profusely from that wound she received in her head.

Meanwhile, Itzak, who was still talking to the sergeant at the time, could only hear the tragedy unfolding in the command center of that space station located in the Chishata solar system...

-"What the blazes happened there? What was that noise?"-

-"Someone or something shot Lieutenant Jones, sir!"

-"WHAT?!"-

-"Looks like she was shot in the head! I don't know what happened, but this has become a total mess here, captain!"-

-"Patch the robot's video signal to the ship ASAP!"-

Gillerand ordered to send the video signal of what was happening to the ship, but there was a grim fact that Itzak made known to the sergeant immediately.

-"I can't see a damn thing from the RR-2's camera, I think it got blood on it!"-

-"I will clean it right away, sir!"-

Meanwhile, Hooti made a desperate attempt to save the life of his partner, who was bleeding profusely from her head. For his misfortune, the fact of having flippers instead of arms made it very difficult for him to cover the wound, and even with the VFD installed in his arms did not help much to work, so he had to resort to the help of RR-2 to cover the wound for him, while the rest of the team, including Gillerand, were desperately looking for who or what shot Lt. Jones inside the command center.

-"JONES, JONES! PLEASE, FOR EVERYTHING SACRED FOR YOU, HOLD ON, DAMMIT!"-

Hooti held Jones' head with his fins while RR-2 covered the bullet wound, which kept bleeding, despite all attempts to prevent it, while the Avian tried to use an anticoagulant gel to lessen the bleeding. Jones, on the other hand, did not seem to be responding to the treatment...

-"RR-2! what are her vitals?"- Hooti yelled in utter despair. -"I can't see a damn thing with all the blood here!"-

The robot did not utter a word, since it was continuing its work to save that woman's life, although apparently, the automaton used sensors coming out of its body in the form of appendices, which served to verify the vital signs of the person the robot was helping.

But after several minutes of trying to help the lieutenant and cover the wound, both Hooti and the automaton realized the harsh reality in front of them...

-"There is nothing we can do for her; all of her vital signs are completely zero and to say she is brain-dead would be an overstating of the point."-

Hearing that, Hooti couldn't help but break into tears. He could not believe that his fellow academymate, Lieutenant Jones, who until just a few moments was chatting happily with her, had now died as absurdly and horribly as possible in what was her first mission since she graduated with him. The rest of the team, who were looking for the source of that shot, stopped to see what they could do about it, as well as console Hooti. The first to say something, for obvious reasons, was the leader, Gillerand, who put his hand on the Avian's shoulder.

-"I'm really sorry, Hooti..."-

Hooti tried to make a supreme endeavor to try to articulate a word, due to the grief he suffered from seeing his fellow woman who was dead in his arms, and who had been unable to do anything for her, despite all his attempts...

-"sob... why... sob... why did she have to die like this in this place?"- The Avian couldn't stop crying. -"That's not fair, for khai's sake... sob... sob..."-

-"Conflicts are never fair, and we all here know that something like this can happen at any time the moment we enlist in the EDF."-

-"I know that!"- Hootie yelled in grief at his senior. -"But still, this is not fair! She did nothing to deserve this... sob..."-

Gillerand did not know what else to say, and making a gesture with his left hand, he asked the rest of the team to accompany Hooti in his pain, something they did quickly, and without saying a word, they let the penguin express his sorrow for the death of his friend.

---

SD 195-11-12, Chishata Mining Colony No. 2 (corridor), 1519 hours

-"Gentlemen, first of all I am very sorry about what happened to Lieutenant Jones; it is really terrible that she had to die this way, and I promise you that I will find a way so that her death was not in vain, like all our comrades who have perished to this point. Likewise, whoever did this will not go unpunished, and for that we need all the evidence we can find, so that we can take the proof home and the central command can make the corresponding accusations."-

The voice of Itzak Arrat was heard through the loudspeaker of the RR-2 robot, which was in front of the rest of the search and rescue team resting in the hallways of the space station, trying to rest after that traumatic moment suffered four hours ago, and also after searching through the command center of the station for evidence, in addition to seeking what or who shot Jones.

-"Captain, I didn't have time to say this before, as we were all tired and grieving over what happened to Jones, but we found the culprit behind her death."- Gillerand spoke to the captain about what they could find out about the aforementioned tragedy. -"And I think this might interest you."-

-"Really?"- The Equine replied by the radio. -"Did you guys find something?"-

-"That's right."- The sergeant sent the results of his search to the DH270 for Itzak to see. -"During the search and thanks to the RR-2, we found what appears to be a mini-robot with a cannon installed inside a casing that has the appearance of a security camera, so that it can go unnoticed by anyone who goes there. The drone also has a laser sight installed, and in addition to the bullet that was used to kill Jones, the machine had an automatic firing system that uses .45 caliber ammunition, but for some reason, after that shot at Jones, the robot's cannon jammed, which prevented more victims."-

-"Caliber .45?"- The captain replied really surprised after hearing the size of the caliber used to kill Jones. -"Oh my, they used a big one for a drone."-

-"I agree with you, captain. Whoever designed this really wanted the target or targets to be really dead."-

-"And did you guys pin down any clues as to who could have built that robot?"-

-"Sadly, no."- The Canine replied. -"The robot was built with common parts that could have been obtained anywhere, and the same goes for ammunition; the identification codes were erased to prevent us from finding who could have manufactured these ammo shells."-

There was a brief silence on Itzak's part, because he was trying to analyze what he had heard about the robot used to kill the lieutenant and decide what to do next. The ILR had tried to find a way to erase any clues that might implicate them in the attack on the colony and up to that point they only had very little evidence, even though they had faced two enemy ships that were of the same type used by the Republic, not to mention the ACVs they used to attack the DH270. This was really important, since any accusation made against the ILR had to have concrete evidence that they could prove, otherwise it would be the statement of the captain and senior officer in charge of the mission to help the colony against that of the Republic.

And knowing the tactics used by the ILR in the past, and by the use of the latter of mini-robots to carry out ambushes or covert killings in unexpected places. Itzak was completely sure that those responsible were Lepine soldiers and not space pirates or terrorists as had also been insinuated at the outset.

-"Damn!"- Itzak cursed loudly. -"That's not going to help us as evidence against the ILR in the least. And if we don't find any surviving crew members or find a way to access the station's computers, the chances of being able to hold the Republic accountable for this atrocity would be slim."-

-"Indeed, sir."-

-"Forgive the interruption, sergeant and you too, captain, but I think this might be of interest to both of you and the rest of the team."-

The robot interrupted the chat between Gillerand and Itzak to try to give an important message to the sergeant.

-"Really, RR-2?"-

-"While you were talking, I tried to access the station's local Net files, and while there is not much I can do while the systems are offline, I was able to find something by logging into the backup database."

-"What could you find in that database?"-

-"The last record that the database entered before all systems were disabled was that a large concentration of people appeared to have headed for the medical section of the station, which is northwest of our position. This is the last record recorded before shutdown, so there is a possibility that any life signs that still existed could be located there."-

When everything seemed to indicate that it would be a long search throughout the station, that vital information had come at a very opportune time, bearing in mind that Gillerand and his team were still depressed by Jones' death, and some members, including Hooti, didn't feel eager to continue after that heart-wrenching tragedy.

-"So what are we waiting for?"- The sergeant was heartened to learn that they already had a lead on the crew's whereabouts, which meant less work for them, and if they found someone alive, any evidence could be used against either the ILR or those responsible for the attack on the colony. -"We'll go to the medical section and see if we can find someone there."-

-"YES, SIR!"-

-"I'm also going to need some people to take Jones' body to the ship while we search the medical section of the station. I am also going to need you to take all the physical evidence we have found so far in the command center, especially the remains of the mini-robot used to kill her. I am not going to allow her death to go unpunished and this will serve us as proof of that."- Gillerand then ordered four members of the team to take the evidence and Jones's body, who was in a bodybag, with them to their transport ship, while the rest of the team will carry out the search on the station's medical section. -"The rest of the team will come with me, and that includes you, Hooti."-

-"Me, sir?"-

-"That's right."- Tha Canine officer replied at his Avian junior. -"I know how you feel, and I fully understand that you and Jones were very close friends from the academy, but I need your help to complete this mission, and we can't be depressed all the time. I don't think she would have liked that about you or us, and if we find any evidence that those rabbits did all this, rest assured that I, the captain and all of us will see to it that they will regret what they did, you can rest assured of that."-

The penguin was comforted to know that his superior officer was trying to cheer him up after what happened with Jones, and considering how violent her death was, what Hooti needed most was some kind of encouragement to continue his work.

-"Thank you very much, sir."-

-"That's okay."- Then, he patted Hooti's shoulder in order to comfort him. -"I just hope her family can come to terms with all this when we get home."-

---

SD 195-11-12, Chishata Mining Colony No. 2 (Medical section), 1600 hours

After locating the most probable lead to the whereabouts of the space station's crew, Gillerand and the rest of the search and rescue team walked to the medical section of the station. Like the rest of the space station, there was not a single soul in there, nor was there any device or light on, which forced the team to use their own backlights.

-"Be very careful when entering a room, as it is likely that there may be a trap in there."- The Canine sargeant warned the team. -"Also watch out for chairs or anything that looks suspicious, we don't want another hidden murderous mini-robot trying to kill us."-

-"I don't think you need to tell us that, Sergeant."- Replied one of the members of the team, while checking one of the rooms with the help of the RR-2. -"Just being here really freaks me out."-

And in a way, that soldier had reasons for that place to start scaring him: The whole medical section, like the command center hours ago, was completely messed up from head to toe. The chairs were on the floor, there were a lot of objects thrown around, among them medical equipment, syringes, medicines and other things; there was not a single thing that was not in its proper place, and above all, there was a strange and fetid smell that pervaded that entire section of the space station, something that the RR-2 made notice immediately.

-"Sergeant, I detect the presence of an unidentified odor present in this section."-

-"Can you analyze its contents?"-

-"Just a moment, please."-

The robot made use of its sensors to analyze the composition of that mysterious smell that permeated the place, and after a brief pause, the automaton informed the results...

-"In addition to oxygen and hydrogen, there is a presence of ethyl alcohol, benzalkonium chloride, chlorhexidine gluconate, hexachlorophene, hydrogen peroxide, iodized alcohol, formaldehyde and glutaraldehyde in the air."- The robot made a list of the substances present in the air. Although all these substances were toxic, the team members did not have much to worry about breathing them, since they all wore their space suits, which had their own breathing systems, so there was no risk of poisoning. -"All these substances are for medical use, so it is likely that the invaders may have spilled them on the floor while ransacking the site."-

-"Is there any risk that these substances could damage our suits by corroding them?"-

-"Negative, sir."- The automaton replied at his organic master. -"Although these substances can be dangerous if breathed without protection, the suits are designed to resist corrosion, furthermore the amount of these present in the air is not enough to cause any serious issues."-

-"Good to know that, thanks a lot, RR-2."- Gillerand then decided to deal with his subordinates. -"Hey, have you guys found anything so far?"-

-"Nothing yet, sir."- Hooti replied, while still searching in one of the rooms. -"The strangest thing is we haven't found anything, not even traces of blood."-

-"That's weird."- Another member of the team confirmed what his Avian partner said. -"Considering the place, it would be logical that there was something, even if it was a corpse, lying in one of these rooms, or some kind of organic trace that could give us a clue as to what might have happened here."-

And while the search and rescue team continued to search everywhere in the medical section, without success, the RR-2 quickly alerted Gillerand regarding something the machine detected at the scene...

-"Sergeant, my sensors detect what appears to be a very weak presence of a heat source from the southern part of the section, which matches the profile of a living being."-

-WHAT?!- The sargeant replied at the automaton at that important news. -"Do you mean that, RR-2?"-

-"Affirmative, sir."- The machine confirmed the info at the Canine officer. -"What's more, I've detected other heat sources with the same profile in the same direction."-

-"Any idea where those sources are actually located?"-

-"I can only detect that it comes from the southern area, but I need to get closer to pinpoint the exact spot."-

Gillerand checked the map on his data pad to find out what place the robot was referring to. As indicated, everything seemed to suggest that the only place that fit the profile there was a warehouse where medical supplies were stored, which was large enough for many people to be inside, so there was a very large possibility that anyone who might be alive would be in that location.

-"Then let's go down there right away!"- Gillerand later ordered his men to go southwards. -"I just hope we find someone alive in that place."-

-"Yes, sir!"-

---

SD 195-11-12, Chishata Mining Colony No. 2 (Medical section/warehouse), 1700 hours

-"Sergeant, the presence of heat sources is more intense each time we come closer, which means there must be several people inside that warehouse."-

The search and rescue team was in front of the medical supply warehouse, and as mentioned on the map, the location was large enough for many people, approximately fifty or more, to be inside.

The search and rescue team was in front of the medical supply warehouse, and as mentioned on the map, the location was large enough for many people, approximately fifty or more, to be inside.

But before entering the place, they had to make sure that there was no trap waiting for them before entering the place. After what happened with Jones hours ago, they could no longer take undue risks than they already had in mind when entering the station.

-"RR-2, please check the door to see if there are any traps set that can be activated when entering."-

-"Understood, sir."-

The robot advanced towards the door and began to analyze it in order to find anything that might endanger Gillerand's team, while the latter and his men were at a safe distance from the automaton in case anything would go wrong. After several minutes of tense waiting, the RR-2 made their results known to its organic masters.

-"Sergeant, I didn't find anything out of the ordinary on that door, so you and your men can enter the warehouse safely."-

-"Thank you, RR-2."-

Afterwards, Gillerand ordered his men to proceed towards the inside of the warehouse, though carefully to avoid running into some unexpected surprise, such as some killer robot waiting for them inside or some kind of explosive that could be activated when they were already in there. All this caused some fear in several of the men on the team, who couldn't help but notice their unease to enter a completely unknown place, in a space station apparently abandoned and completely in the dark.

-"This place is pretty dark, I can barely see my nose with all this darkness."-

-"Right."- One of the members of the team confirmed his partner's fear about the place. -"It seems that the ILR did well on hiding people in a place that would be very unlikely to notice at first sight.".

-"Keep your voice down, gentlemen."- Gillerand warned his men, and for a good reason, considering what happened before in the command center hours ago. -"We don't know if there are any traps waiting for us taking advantage of this darkness."-

-"Sorry, sir."-

After walking a few steps, the RR-2 suddenly stopped in the middle of the road...

-"Sergeant, I've detected several weak heat sources around us that match those of a living being."-

-"Really?"-

-"Yes, si..."-

But before the robot could finish answering Gillerand, the latter felt what appeared to be an unusual physical contact. When the Canine turned to find out if it was a member of his team who had touched him, he realized that the rest of the team was several steps away from the officer, which meant that someone other than his men had touched him from behind.

-"What... the... blazes...was...that?"-

-"Sergeant, I feel the presence of several heat sources..."-

-"I ALREADY KNOW THAT, DAMN IT!"- The team leader interrupted the machine in fear and concern. -"Please tell me if we're surrounded, I feel like several people are lurking around here."-

-"Do you want me to turn on all my lighting equipment at full power to floodlight the place?"-

The sergeant hesitated a little before giving the order, and for a good reason, because if he ordered the robot to illuminate the entire site, and if there was any robot or enemy soldier in that place to ambush them, the only thing that would cause was that they would be a very easy target for any enemy who wanted to attack them on the spot, because the surprise factor would be nullified immediately, and if there were enemies who had taken the residents of the station as hostages, things could get even uglier if they used them as shields.

-"Please do."- The leader confirmed the order to the robot, with some notable hesitation. -"I just hope it's not what I think it is.".

-"Understood, sir"- Then, the robot called out the order as loudly as the machine could. -"SWITCHING ON INTERNAL LIGHTING EQUIPMENT AT MAXIMUM POWER."-

As soon as Gillerand gave the order, the robot illuminated the entire cellar with its internal lights, so that they could see what was inside the place without problems. For obvious reasons, the sergeant prepared his weapon in case there was someone or something waiting for them in there.

-"Sergeant, what's wrong? Why did you ordered the robot to turn on the..."-

But before that soldier could finish talking, the whole team realized something that was infinitely worse than any trap waiting for them, something that left many in an utter state of shock...

Everyone realized that due to zero gravity, there were many people floating in the warehouse completely unconscious and without the ability to notice the presence of the DH270 search and rescue team. What made that scene especially grim was that there were a large number of people of all species, ages and both sexes who were among the victims, as if the invaders wanted to make sure there were no survivors.

-"WHAT THE BLAZES HAPPENED HERE?"- Gillerand cursed loudly at the sight of that grisly finding. -"What did those bastards do with all these people?"-

The rest of the team was equally shocked and horrified by the grotesque scene in front of them; some of them began to put their hands in their mouths in revulsion, and some couldn't help cursing those responsible for that event. Never in their lives had they seen anything so terrible as the sight of several people who might be dead, including women and children, who were the innocent victims of the ILR, which did not stop at causing civilian casualties for the sole purpose of looting a civilian space station and stealing precious minerals for its own, possibly military, purposes.

-"Captain Arrat! Can you see all this?"-

Itzak was also watching the whole event through the RR-2 video camera, which transmitted all those images to the spacecraft. And like Gillerand and his team, the rest of the crew that was on the bridge reacted with revulsion and rage to that horrifying sight.

-"Oh... no..."- Itzak, as the captain, was the first on reacting at the whole scene, with obvious results. -"Who could be so damned insane to do something like that?"-

And that would be the kindest thing, so to speak, that came from the mouth of any crew member who was at that time on the bridge, since the other people who also saw that began to curse strongly against the ILR, some of those insults even had a great racist bigotry against the ILR, especially against Lepines, something that Itzak had to quickly order his men to stop before things went out of control.

-"Gentlemen, I understand your anger at what happened, but I would like to remind everyone that I very much doubt that not all Lepines are bloodthirsty monsters, and I very much doubt that the citizens of the ILR are in favor of such actions. It is very likely that all this has been ordered by the high command of the organization in order to provoke us, or at least that is how I interpret all this. Our main mission first is to look for any survivors we can find in the colony, and then, use whatever evidence we can find here so that it can be used against the ILR through the proper means."-

After the captain's words, the crew was immediately silent, although their angry faces were evident in each of the members present on the bridge, but they all complied fully with the order of their superior officer, whom they deeply respected, not so much because he was the captain, but because he was a person whom they admired for being Itzak someone who treated his men as flesh and blood people, and not as mere disposable pawns in the service of the EDF.

-"Captain."- One of the members of the crew addresed the Equine capitan. -"This is not going to stay like this, is it?"

-"Indeed."- Then Itzak put his eyes on the screen, trying to address Gillerand, who was still there at the scene. -"Did you heard that?"-

-"Yeah, I already hear that, captain."- The Canine sargeant replied with some unease. -"And sticking to the subject, I just noticed something unusual about the victims, and I don't know if it's possible for you to see it through the video camera right now."-

The cpaitan looked back at the screen to see exactly what Gillerand was referring to, and quickly noticed something that all the victims had in common, and it was something incredibly unusual...

All the victims had a device that looked like some kind of mask that was connected to an oxygen tank, or so it seemed at first glance. Actually, that device was an autodoc, a kind of tank that contains oxygen, nitrogen, and various other healing gases that are normally used in emergencies to speed up an individual's healing processes, especially when medical help can take a long time to arrive, especially in a place as unusual and potentially dangerous as a space station.

What was not explained at the time was the reason why all those people had their autodocs on them, if the main intention was to let them die at that moment. It would have been quicker and more convenient to simply have executed all the prisoners in the act, and simply have left the cadavers in the hold. On the other hand, most of the victims had very weak vital signs, while others could not analyze their signs at that time, but that was already the least important in those critical moments: The important thing was to know the reason why those autodocs had been placed on all those victims and for what purpose.

-"I don't understand why the invaders took the trouble to put all those autodocs on the victims if it had been quicker to kill them and hide them there than to leave them unconscious, knowing that they could expose everything the Lepines did at the station."-

Helmut, the second in command of the ship, noticed what the purpose of those devices could be, and it was something he let Itzak know immediately.

-"I hate to say this, captain, but I think it might be a trap."-

Faced with this possibility that no one had taken into account, not even Itzak, the latter made his surprise obvious...

-"Are you serious, Helmut?"-

-"Think carefully about this, Captain."- The officer explained to Itzak about the reason why the whole thing could be a trap set by the ILR. -"Why didn't they just executed the crew first before putting them in this warehouse? Or just destroy the space station as they did with the station number one days ago? That would have been faster, especially if they were in a hurry to leave here as soon as possible and leave no witnesses along the way."-

-"But what kind of insane person would think of putting some kind of trap in the autodocs, Helmut?"- Itzak replied with some hesitation about the possibility of someone setting traps on medical devices originally intented to heal people, not to kill them. -"Not only would that be overkill, but it will also a war crime that could be punished with the death penalty."-

-"Someone who would be very interested not only in killing us, but also the crew of the station, and if they can also destroy the station as a product of the trap, that would also help a lot in not leaving any trail that could lead to the perpetrators."-

Seeing the possibility that there might be a trap waiting for the men and women of the search and rescue team led by Gillerand, Itzak knew he was not going to risk his men's lives needlessly, and the best thing was to leave that job to the robots, something that made the sergeant know quickly via radio.

-"Sergeant, did you hear all this?"-

-"Yeah, I heard all the talk about the possibility that all this is some kind of trap."- Gillerand replied at Itzak via the RR-2 -"What do you want us to do then?"-

-"Return to the ship immediately."- The Equine bluntly ordered the sargeant. -"I will not risk your lives on this, and we will send specialized robots to rescue the victims instead."-

-"OK... I see, sir."- Gillerand could not hide his disappointment in not being able to rescue anyone, considering the sacrifices that some people, especially Lieutenant Jones, made for the mission. But at the same time, the captain was right to prevent anyone else from getting hurt or killed, and it was best to leave the dangerous work to the robots in their stead. -"We will return to the ship as soon as- "-

Before Gillerand could finish speaking, the last two things Itzak Arrat and the DH270's crew on the bridge were able to see and hear before the video signal was suddenly cut off were what appeared to be an intense luminous ball and a scream; then there was just static in the video image that was transmitted to the spacecraft thanks to the RR-2 robot's video camera.

-"WHAT THE BLAZES HAPPENED THERE? ANSWER ME, SERGEANT!"

Unfortunately, there was no response from Gillerand and his team, which meant something terrible must have happened at that space station. Itzak, therefore, tried desperately to re-establish contact by all possible means at his disposal from the DH270...

-"DH270 to Gillerand, please respond!"-

Again, there was no response from the space station...

-"DAMN IT!"- The Equine captain cursed loudly. -"Does anyone have any information on the vital signs of team members?"-

-"Negative, captain."- One of the crew members of the ship in charge with the vital signs of the S & R team replied at Itzak. -"All the vital signs of the team members are completely flat, but we don't know if it's because of any kind of interference or an incident that occurred at the station."-

But when all seemed lost after several minutes of silence from the station and before Itzak and the rest of the ship's crew could begin to worry seriously, a weak voice with a lot of static sound around it was transmitted to the DH270.

That voice, which was a male one, was a voice that sounded between a mixture of pain and panic, but at the same time tried to make a supreme effort to maintain calm in order to communicate with the ship.

-"BZZZ... DH270... can you... bzzz... hear me...?"-

Upon hearing that voice, Itzak quickly took control of the communication in order to respond to that voice. Judging by his tone of voice, Itzak swore that he had heard that person somewhere, which meant that it could not be the voice of some stranger...

-"YEAH! WE CAN HEAR YOU!"- The captain replied at his then-unnamed caller. -"IDENTIFY YOURSELF IF YOU CAN!"-

-"bzzz... Lt. Hooti here, sir, AUGGH!... It seems that I am fine... although somewhat in pain... but the same do not think I can say of the rest of my team... bzzz..."

Itzak tried to maintain his composure after that emotional outburst by knowing that at least there was someone who could answer him, and asked the pertinent questions about the whereabouts of the rest of the team.

-"What happened to Gillerand and the rest of your team? Are they okay? Or did something happen to them?"-

-"BZZZZZZ...sargeant... is gone... everyone... dead... there's nothing left of them... bzzzzz... and the space station crew..."-

Those words were the last thing Itzak Arrat wanted to hear. Knowing that the entire search and rescue team had died, with the exception of Hooti, was something that caused the captain of the ship to become visibly uneasy, and even more so if he had no way of knowing the reasons why they might have been killed.

And before Itzak asked Hooti for more explanations, an electronic voice was heard on the ship's bridge.

-"Captain, I'm sorry to interrupt, but I'm receiving video footage from the RR-2. While the robot is damaged and can no longer move, its transmission systems are still working."-

-"Can you forward the footage to the ship's monitors?"-

-"Affirmative, but I want to warn you in advance that what you and the rest of your crew are going to witness are very graphic images. I hope you understand that, captain."-

-"It doesn't matter, I want to see what happened in that place right away!-

-"Understood, sir."-

After receiving the captain's clearance, the Net sent the ship the video footage of what had happened in the warehouse of the space station's medical section. At first, the only thing seen in the video stream was what appeared to be static with a seemingly cloud of dust and debris surrounding the RR-2 after the incident...

But seeing clearly what had happened in that place, Itzak Arrat realized clearly the warning given by the computer regarding how graphic were those images transmitted by the video camera of the damaged robot, and he would have wished at that moment to have changed his mind before allowing those grotesque imagery to be shown on the computer screens of the bridge:

Let's say the term NSFW (Not Safe For Work) is more than adequate in these circumstances, and for a good reason: The only thing left of the search and rescue team, along with the unconscious crew that was in that place and that had been locked up there by the enemy invaders, were only blood, arms, legs, tails, heads and in the worst case, gore; All this floating in the void of space in a macabre dance in front of the noses of the crew of DH270 and its captain, some of whom even began to vomit at the sight of that disgusting spectacle that appeared before their eyes, and a handful just could not avoid but curse those responsible for that tragedy.

-"OH, NO...NO... NO, NO,NO!"-

-"THIS IS SO... HORRIBLE!"-

-"WHO WAS THE DAMN PSYCHO WHO DID THIS BUTCHERY?"-

-"THOSE CRAZY COTTON-ASSES KILLED GILLERAND AND HIS TEAM BY RIGGING THE AUTODOCS OF THE STATION'S CREW WITH BOMBS!"-

Many of the insults heard on the bridge, some of them racist nature, were heard with great intensity in the place, while Itzak, the captain of the ship, could only remain stunned at what he was seeing in front of his eyes. Although his duty as captain was to maintain the calm of his crew at any cost, what he and his men had just witnessed exceeded the known limits of any military law known to date, and that those responsible for that cowardly act only intended to kill as many people as they could and in the bloodiest way possible.

And once the Equine captain managed to regain his composure, Itzak did not hesitate to contact Hooti to let him know what he should do at that moment...

-"Lieutenant, can you still hear me?"-

The Avian promptly retorted, albeit with some effort and pain.

-"Yes... I hear you... captain..."

-"Leave that damn space station immediately!"- Itzak yelled at Hooti as loudly as he could. -"Return to the ship right now! If you see any survivors, bring them back with you, otherwise return by any means possible! That is an order!"-

-"Understood, sir."-

-"Can you return to the ship on your own, Lieutenant?"

-"I think so..."- The penguin replied as he slowly recovered his strength. -"Fortunately, my life-support systems are intact... because I was near the warehouse door when the explosion occurred... and I was only rendered unconscious at the time of the blast."-

-"Good."- Itzak was relieved to know Hooti was able to return by his own means. -"Return to the ship ASAP. We will take care of the rest as soon as you are back here."

-"Yes, sir."-

Without wasting any more words and time, Hooti embarked on the arduous journey back to the transport ship that would take him back to DH270, this time all alone, as he was the only known survivor of the search and rescue team. While Hooti was on his way to the vehicle, Itzak did his best to try to comfort him, considering what happened in the medical section, and the probability that what happened there could have traumatized him considerably...

-"I'm so sorry about what happened, and I think a lot of what happened there is also my fault; if I knew before there was a trap in that place-"-

-"Please captain, it's not your fault."- Hooti interrumpted Itzak. -"No one was going to know that someone was going to put bombs in all those people's autodocs. You did what anyone would have done in those circumstances and I think it's not fair to blame yourself for that, sir."-

-"Yeah..."- The Equine captain replied with some unease. -"Maybe you're right."-

-"We'll be able to talk about it when I get back to the ship. For now the most important thing is that I must leave this station in one piece."-Then, the Avian excused himself due to his tone addressed at his captain. "Forgive my frankness, sir, but I am not in the mood to give an adequate response."-

-"Don't worry, I fully understand that, for now the most important thing is that you return to the ship."-

-"Understood. Is there anything else you'd like to share, captain?"-

-"No."-

-"Then, I'll talk when I'm on the transport ship, or in case of an emergency. Over and out."-

---

SD 195-11-12, DH270, transport ship bay, 1915 hours

After a two-hour long journey back from the space station that was part of the mining space colony of Chishata, Lieutenant Hooti managed to return safely to the DH270, though only maintaining minimal communications with the ship, which was understandable, considering that Avian was not in the mood for long conversations with anyone.

Once Hooti was aboard the DH270, he was greeted by the second in command, Helmut, who on behalf of Captain Itzak Arrat, who was busy with his duties, decided to welcome to the ship the only surviving member of the search and rescue team originally led by Sergeant Gillerand.

-"Welcome back, Lieutenant. I'm sorry about what happened to your team-"-

But before he could continue with the welcome, Helmut noticed the terrible state of Hooti's space suit, especially after that tragedy in the space station hold. The suit was completely drenched in blood, likely from the people who died in the explosion, and had several damages everywhere, which showed the seriousness of that incident and how fortunate Hooti was to survive such a chain explosion.

On the other hand, Hooti didn't seem to care much that his superior officer was speechless to see him in that state, and considering what he had gone through there, he had every reason to do so.

-"Oh, khai!"- Helmut uttered in shock after seeing Hooti once the latter stood before him at the ship bay once he disembarked from the transport ship that brought him from the space station. -"It must have been terrible, beyond any doubt."-

On the other hand, the penguin was not in the mood for any formalities towards his superior, something he did not hesitate to point out immediately.

-"Just help me get this damn helmet off, please."-

-"Understood."-

Quickly and without hesitation, Helmut helped him remove the helmet from the Avian's space suit, who was trying to breathe some fresh air after several hours of wearing that thing. That suit fortunately helped the lieutenant survive the explosion with slight damage to the exterior, and protecting Hooti from any internal harm, since the latter was in the backside of the warehouse, where he only felt the blast wave of the explosion, leaving him unconscious for a few minutes.

The only thing his suit could not protect him from, however, was having to witness the aftermath of what happened to his team and the crew of the station, something that was noticeable on his face.

-"Are you all right, Lieutenant? Do you feel anything else that might be out of place?"-

-"I think so. All I need is a good rest, and I apologize for my lack of tact in replying to you, sir."-

-"All right, I think anyone would act the same under the same circumstances."- Then, the second in command gave some advice to the penguin. -"I only ask that you should have a rest first in the ship's infirmary to check for any internal trauma. We just want to make sure you're really okay after that attack."-

-"I appreciate your concern, sir, and I'll take your advice."- The Avian replied at his officer. -"If you will excuse me, I am leaving for the infirmary, just as you asked me to."-

-"OK, see you soon, lieutenant. And when you're ready, we want a report from you about what happened in the station."-

-"Roger that, sir."-

---

SD 195-11-15, DH270, Meeting Room, 1300 hours

Four days have passed since the incident that completely wiped out the DH270's search and rescue team inside the space station that was part of the Chishata mining space station, leaving Lieutenant Hooti as the only survivor. During this time, Captain Itzak Arrat decided to send robots and drones to the colony, instead of flesh-and-blood people to avoid another tragedy similar to the one in order to find more survivors, to know something about the reason why the latter were unconscious when they were found, and above all, to know that it was exactly what happened that day that caused the explosion that killed almost everyone in that warehouse.

Thanks to the information gathered by the automata inside the station, a complete report was written explaining the results obtained in the investigation, which obviously included the reason why the autodocs exploded, the composition of the gas, and other matters to be discussed.

And the person who was to read the report was the ship's second in command, Helmut:

-"Gentlemen, I thank you very much for coming here to hear the report of the investigation conducted in the last four days regarding the incident in the warehouse in the medical section of the space station, in addition to other particulars that we have found in the colony. This report would not have been possible without the captain's permission, nor without Dr. Charneu's collaboration with regard to the analysis of blood samples taken from the victims of the explosion, along with those taken from the survivors we found in the rest of the colony."-

In the meeting room of the ship, besides Helmut, were also present the aforementioned Itzak Arrat, Hooti, Dr. Charneu, and some important members of the crew of the ship, among them some EDF officers who accompanied the crew to present their own conclusions to ConFed along with those contributed by Itzak Arrat and his men.

-"Well, Helmut, at your earliest convenience, you can begin to explain the report, please."- Itzak said at his Feline second-in-command.

-"Understood, captain."-

Helmut pressed some buttons on the computer in front of him to start reading the report.

-"Gentlemen, as you know, we lost almost all of our search and rescue team due to a trap set by the enemy invaders on the sabotaged autodocs that were placed on the station crew in order to cause as many casualties as possible. For this, the autodocs had installed accelerometers and gyroscopes that could detect sudden movements made at the time of manipulating the bodies, which activated the explosive device installed in the autodocs. To increase the explosive level of the trap, all the autodocs had installed a low frequency radio transmitter that sent a command that activated the other explosives to any autodoc that was near the manipulated device, regardless of whether someone had touched the other autodocs or not. As a result, someone on the team must have tampered with any of the bodies when checking their vital signs or attempting to help, which caused a chain explosion that wiped out anyone wearing those devices, along with anyone near them."

A brief silence was present in the room after hearing the last part that mentioned explosives. This was evident in the case of Hooti, the only survivor of that tragedy, who had not yet fully recovered from that incident, at least psychologically, something that Helmut promptly noticed.

-"I'm sorry that you have to listen that last part, Lieutenant, but I think you will understand the importance of this report in order to know the causes that caused it, and thus to delimit responsibilities about what happened, although we know well enough that it was not your fault."-

-"No, don't worry, sir, it's OK."- The Avian replied at the Feline in a rather dry way. -"I fully understand the need for this report, and I am not trying to blame anyone for it, or you for telling the truth about what happened, just as I am not trying to hide anything about the incident, at least not from what I saw before the bombs went off."

-"Well, if there's nothing else to add, I'll continue with the report."- Helmut continued with the talk. -"As we all know, Lieutenant Hooti was the only survivor of the incident, which only suffered minor injuries that did not require hospitalization. Out of it, we lost nine members of the search and rescue team, one of them, Lieutenant Jones, died from a gunshot wound to the head at the hands of an armed mini-robot at the space station command center, while Sergeant Gillerand and the rest of his men died during the warehouse bombing due to the sabotaged autodocs. The lieutenant managed to survive the attack because he was near the access door to the warehouse, and he only received the blast wave of the explosion, which left him unconscious for a few minutes. Once he regained consciousness, he was able to leave the station without many problems."-

A brief silence was again present as Helmut continued to read the report on his computer.

-"After the incident, it was deemed dangerous to continue searching for survivors using flesh and blood personnel, so the rest of the search in the last four days we decided to use drones and robots to search for anyone who might still be inside the colony. Thanks to the automatons, we were able to find more people, but unfortunately all of them were in the same condition as the people we found in the warehouse of station number two: All were unconscious due to the gas supplied by the sabotaged autodocs, and in some autodocs was detected the presence of the same explosives that killed Gillerand and almost all his team. Because it was considered dangerous to manipulate the bodies in these conditions, the only thing we could do for these people was try to cut the tubes that connected the tanks that contained the toxic gas, so that the victims could breathe on their own, although it was not always possible to do it with all the victims, and in some cases, it was already too late to do something useful for them."-

-"Sorry for the break, Helmut, but there's something I'd like to know."- Itzak interrupted the talk in order to ask Helmut about a very important point. -"Do we have any information on the composition of the toxic gas used in all those people?"-

-That's a good question, and I was just going to go to that point."- The second-in command replied at the capitan. -"But for that, Dr. Charneu will be the one to talk about it."-

Thus, all eyes were directed to the aforementioned character, who was also an Avian (penguin) like Hooti, although he was somewhat taller and his plumage was lighter in color than the lieutenant. Once he received Helmut's word, the doctor began to explain the composition of the gas used in the colony.

-"Well, first of all, I thank Officer Helmut for giving me the word on the matter concerning the toxic gas used in the colony."- The penguin then began to read his own report, focusing on the chemical and medical aspects of that gas. -"After the autodocs incident, the robots sent to the colony managed to collect several blood and air samples that could be obtained both from the victims we found inside that place, as well as from the remains of the victims of the explosive sabotage that occurred four days ago. And these are the results of the analysis we've done on those samples, so I'll get to the point with the subject."-

-"And what did you find, doctor?"- Itzak Arrat asked the medic with some concerned expression on his face.

-"The gas is a kind of organophosphate compound with a really unusual chemical formula that has never been used before in scientific fields, and it is the first time that I am aware of its existence. In fact, this is the first time that the use of a gas of this type is known to be used for military purposes in any kind of conflict, not even during the Lepine War."-

-"And what are the effects of that gas, other than causing unconsciousness?"-

The doctor hesitated a little before that question, since what he was going to explain next was not going to be something very pleasant for anyone to hear at all...

-"This is perhaps the most tragic part of the whole thing, Captain..."-

-"Rea... really, doctor?"-

-"With all frankness, I'm sorry to have to say yes."- The doctor then explained the effects of the gas. -"The gas has a neutralizing effect on the brain of any person, regardless of their species, which acts slowly, but effectively in all sections of the nervous system of the individual exposed to the gas. To explain in a technical way the effects of this chemical compound would be something too complicated for the practical effects of this meeting, so I will get to the point: The longer the victim is exposed to the gas, their nerve functions, including those that regulate memory, are gradually degraded before causing brain death after destroying all nerve and brain tissue."-

After hearing what that gas was capable of producing in those victims affected by its exposure, both Captain Arrat and all the people present in that room could not avoid but feel a sense of repulsion and disgust to hear that the invaders did not hesitate to use a neurotoxic gas in order to inflict more victims, not to mention those who could additionally trigger with the sabotaged autodocs.

-"What kind of monster would do something like that?"- Hooti angrily said after hearing the effects of that gas. -"And to think that I survived that explosion, and only by pure luck I didn't die intoxicated by that cursed gas, considering that my suit was somewhat battered after the blast."-

-"The gas was instantly neutralized in the air after the explosives generated enough heat to consume any amount of the chemical compound that might be in sufficient quantities to kill or harm someone else, and it is likely that any trace of the gas that might have impregnated the lieutenant's space suit could have been neutralized immediately upon contact with the cosmic rays of outer space when re returned to the transport ship, which prevented both the lieutenant and the officer Helmut from being affected when the latter helped him remove his suit helmet."-

-"Well, I think we already know what that gas is capable of doing to someone, unfortunately."- Itzak then went the most important issue that worried him the most. -"But there is something we need to know right away. Is it possible to reverse the effects of the gas on the affected people?"-

-"Like all things related to the brain and nervous system, I think that's something we can't fully reverse, even with the most modern treatments available so far."- The Avian doctor explained in a somber fashion. -"The good news is, if this is any consolation, is that the gas has a very slow effect, which could help in focusing on the parts of the nervous system that were damaged by the gas and on those that were not affected at all, and thus perform a treatment that allows victims with mild affectations to recover in a more or less acceptable way."-

-"Judging by your comment, doctor, I think there's bad news, too, right?"- Helmut asked the medic about his last statement.

-"That's right, regrettably."-

-"And what's the bad news?"-

-"As the captain and you will know beforehand, we have only been able to find a very small group of people within the station, and we don't know if all the victims were in contact with the gas, and even if they were, we don't know how much the gas could have affected them significantly. There may be cases where the gas has not caused any serious brain damage, and there may be others where it is too late, and the only thing we could do for these people is to resort to euthanasia."-

The implication of having to resort to euthanasia in order to end the suffering of the victims of neurotoxic gas was something that none of those present in the meeting room wanted to hear, beginning with Itzak Arrat, the ship's captain, who in those moments he began to feel a sensation of complete helplessness before the reality that he had in front of him and that he, as the highest authority of the ship, had to be forced to authorize the end of the lives of all those people whose minds and brains were destroyed by that wicked poison.

-"Obviously, the decision to euthanize any victim rests solely with the captain, and I fully understand the dilemma you are facing with this."- Then, Dr. Charneu set his sights at Itzak Arrat. -"What would be your decision on the issue, sir?"-

The Equine captain decided to remain silent for a few moments, knowing that would be a extremely painful decision for him, something that those present inside the room noticed immediately. After that brief pause, Itzak made known his final judgement on the subject.

-"Dr. Charneu, I need you to begin looking into which people might be euthanized and which might receive corrective treatment once we can get them out of the station safely once we remove their autodocs."- Itzak gave his first orders on the matter. -"Unfortunately, we are very understaffed, and we do not have enough robots and drones to perform a rescue mission throughout the colony, so I will request tomorrow the sending of reinforcements to help us in this mission and try to rescue as many people as we can."-

-"Is there anything else you wish to say, Captain?"-

-"Not at the moment. In fact, the meeting is dismissed. You may leave."- Then, the captain gave further orders at his men. -"Tomorrow I will give more orders on the matter, so I hope everyone is ready to start working on this."-

-"Yes, sir!"-

Once the order was given to adjourn the session, the meeting room of the ship became completely deserted, with the only exception of Itzak, who was still there, in a supreme attempt to face that tragic situation that he had in front of him. For the young captain of the EDF, that mission, which was his first since he graduated from the academy, had turned into a tragedy with serious diplomatic implications, of which it was now up to him to try to find those responsible for that massacre towards his crew, and towards all those innocent people who lost their lives and their health because of the disproportionate ambitions of a few.

-"Damn..."-

---

SD 195-11-15, DH270, Itzak Arrat's room, 2300 hours

-"DAMN IT! DAMN THEM ALL!"-

Taking advantage of the solitude of being in his own room, and thus avoiding being seen by his own men, Itzak Arrat decided to vent his rage over all the tragic events that occurred at his command by punching his right hoof against the wall of his room, to such an extent that he dented it after many blows.

The magnitude of the captain's explosive behavior caused the Net, one of whose functions is to take care of anyone's state of mind, to start taking action first by trying to talk to him.

-"May I inquire what is the matter with you, Itzak Arrat?"-

Upon hearing the words of the computer, Itzak stopped hitting the wall, knowing that the IA would start taking action if he did not do it first. Once that was done, the Equine man sat in a chair to talk about his issue with the Net.

-"You know very well why I'm angry, don't you?"-

-"Certainly, everything that happened with your crew and the inhabitants of the space colony must be giving you a lot of anguish, and you need to vent that repressed anger in some way or another."-

-"It's not just the incident itself that pisses me off, it's also the involvement of those who are responsible for all this atrocity, and I believe that many of us know who is behind all of this."-

-"I take it you mean the Independent Lepine Republic's armed forces, right?"-

-"That's right. Who else could do something as elaborate as this?"- Itzak replied at the AI with a very somber voice. -"I doubt very much that any terrorist or criminal group would take the trouble to create a neurotoxic gas that progressively destroys people's brains just to steal precious minerals, and draw everyone's attention with such a brutal act. And worst of all is this gas forces us all to act quickly to save as many victims as we can, but with all those explosives in the autodocs, our freedom of action and maneuver is very limited, and it is very likely that there will be more victims when trying to do something about it. Add the fact to, as I explained in the meeting room this afternoon, we are too short-staffed and we don't have enough robots to start working safely and I don't intend to unnecessarily risk the lives of the rest of my men in something that could be completely in vain if we fail."-

-"And why would the ILR want to steal precious minerals, considering that the two planets that make up the republic have sufficient reserves of these minerals in their own lands to begin to attack mining colonies so they can steal their resources? I think it would have been more practical to simply seize the colony and use it for their benefit than to simply rob a few tons of materials, knowing that they won't be able to obtain more afterwards."-

-"That's simple:"- The Equine replied at the AI. -"They didn't attack that colony to steal, but to cause as much chaos as possible. And considering what happened in Derzon seven months ago, this was a coldly calculated act in order to give the EDF a bad image among ConFed citizens and to see us as utterly incompetent."-

-"I think it would be best if you rest, Itzak, and start tomorrow to think of an adequate way to solve this dilemma. I will help as much as possible to the extent of my possibilities, but even I have my limits and I depend on outside help to complete my work on many times."-

Itzak did a brief pause in his talk, and after a few minutes, he began to take off his clothes, and then put on his sleeping ones, something that the Net noticed.

-"I guess you will take my advice into consideration after all."-

-"What else can I do?"- Itzak replied as he lay down in his bed, trying to sleep while still arguing with the computer about the matter. -"If I go on like this, I'll go nuts sooner or later if I keep worrying like this, not to mention I'll end up breaking my arm in the same way."-

Itzak Arrat tried to fall asleep, but no matter how hard he tried, all those tragic events that had occurred in the last few days were still spinning in his head and prevented him from trying to rest. The Net knew that the captain still had some things to say about it.

-"I can tell quickly by your vital signs that you still can't rest, Itzak."-

-"And who wouldn't?"- The Equine sadly replied, this time with a very enraged voice -"In the end, even when I get home, I doubt if anyone in the EDF leadership will believe that the ILR and its armed forces could be behind this carnage..."-

Immediately afterwards, Itzak then punched the wall on the side of his bed again, in order to unleash his rage for one last time.

-"Shit!"-

---

SD 195-11-21, Independent Lepine Republic, unknown place, unknown hour

-"It is good to know that you have been able to return safely, Amenenha, but in the same way, I am very disappointed that we had so many casualties in your mission to Chishata."-

In the following scene, we see Colonel Amenenha, who was part of the ILR mission in assaulting the mining space colony of Chishata, and who apparently survived after escaping from the above system by jumping out of the DH270 captained by Itzak Arrat. He was in a completely dark room, with only a few lights around him, along with some furniture, and in front of the old man, there was another person, who apart from Amenenha, were the only people inside that room. Judging by the tone and deference in which he addressed that person, it seemed that he was an old acquaintance of Amenenha from time ago.

-"Well, what did you expect me to do about it, my old friend?"- The old Lepine replied with some defiant attitude toward his interlocutor. -"Things suddenly escalated when the EDF appeared on the scene, so at least thank me that the mission went as planned."-

-"Yes, I agree with you that the mission was a success, but I also have to explain to the council the reason why we lost a cargo ship with several tons of minerals that were worth approximately more than 100 million credits, and that without mention the crew of that ship."-

-"Well, that can be considered an acceptable loss."- Amenenha shrugged. -"Anyway, we didn't need all those minerals at the end of the day, did we?"-

-"Technically no, but money is still money after all, and the council does not approve of any unnecessary economic loss, no matter how small."- The other mysterious man replied after seeing how that old man didn't seem to care about those losses. -"And on top of that, I have to explain to the families of the deceased why all those men died. And I think we have to come up with a good excuse to hide the true purpose of that mission from all those families who lost their parents, children and other family members in a mission that went awry."-

-"Awry, you said?"- The rabbit replied somewhat offended by that last remark. -"At least those men died for a good cause, and the mission fulfilled its objectives, although I personally admit that we lost the spoils obtained in the colony, but the results of the mission could easily compensate for that loss. In addition, I am surprised that you care so much about the loss of staff, since you have always distinguished yourself in sacrificing as many men as necessary."-

-"It is one thing to use your men for a good cause and expect them to sacrifice themselves for it, and another thing is to use them as disposable pawns, like you did."-

-"Well, as they said, shit happens."- Amenenha tried to explain some of his failures during the mission in Chishata. -"It was not my intention at any time to sacrifice so many people, but at that time things got out of control and the number one priority at that time was to escape the solar system at any cost. And as you know, both ships suffered considerable damage during the fight against the EDF ship, being the freighter who suffered structural damage that prevented it from surviving the jump. The Zehtoh, on the other hand, managed to jump safely to a safe region, although I do have to admit that the ship may have to be considered as a total loss for the damage received during combat and during the jump in the same way."-

-"As I understand it, the damage of the Zehtoh could amount to more than 10 million credits, and that only in repairing the outer structure of the ship, since the internal damages have not yet been quantified."- The other man replied on regards of the damage on Amenenha's ship. -"The most safe thing is, as you say, the ship is declared a total loss and be dismantled. It is not a great loss, since the ship is small, but it is still a considerable loss of money, along with the freighter and its cargo."-

-"And what about me?"- The colonel asked about the consequences of some of his failures during the mission. -"Does the council intend to punish me for this?"-

-"That's a good question."- The other mysterious Lepine replied at Amenenha's question. -"The council has decided that, in view of your background, and considering that this is the first time that, during a mission where you have participated, problems have occurred where considerable amounts of money were lost, they made the decision of not doing anything about it, with the only recommendation to prevent something similar from happening again. Considering that the priority objective of the mission was met as expected, and that there were unexpected factors that caused the mission to go out of course, such as the appearance of the EDF, the council has no further complaints regarding your performance."-

-"I think I should thank you for this, and prevent my name from being tainted by this, Tom."-

-"Well, that was the only thing I could do for you within the council, my old friend, just like in the old days during the war."-

Both men began to laugh as they remembered their times when they fought together in the First War, where they both fought side by side together against all the dangers they faced. For that man named Tom, helping his old friend who was in trouble was part of that friendship and he was willing to do it again, now that he held an important position within that council, in order to prevent the reputation of his friend from being affected by that incident.

-"I just need to ask you one last favor, Amenenha."-

-"And what would that favor be, Tom?"-

The Lepine did a brief pause...

-"Don't do another theatricality again."- Tom scolded the old man, and for a good reason -"Remember that we are in peace, and the last thing that we in the Republic would like to say is to admit that the famous Executioner of Baka is still alive and well among us. Understood?"-

Amenenha, likewise, also kept a few seconds of silence before giving an answer...

-"I will take your opinion into account, my old friend."-

END OF ACT XIV

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